Gleason takes 11th at NCAA championships

Yale men’s swimming captain George Gleason ’01 finished his Yale career by doing what he has done so many times in the past four years — setting a new school record.

Gleason’s final competition as a Bulldog swimmer got off to an inauspicious start last Thursday, but he rebounded and capped his Yale career with an 11th-place finish in the finals of the 200-meter backstroke at the NCAA Swimming Championships in College Station, Texas, earning him All-American honors.

The event reminded Gleason of last month’s Eastern Regional Championships, where he also started poorly but finished on a high note.

“The NCAAs were a lot like the Easterns in that I did not swim as well as I would have liked, but managed to turn things around by the end of the meet,” Gleason said.

This past Saturday, Gleason qualified for the finals of the 200-meter backstroke by finishing 12th out of the 32 competitors in the preliminary swim. Then, in the finals, his time of 1:44.73 placed him 11th and earned him distinction as an All-American. His time was also a personal best and an all-time Yale record. Texas Longhorn Nate Dusing captured the top spot with a time of 1:42.84.

Gleason attributed his success in the backstroke to a number of factors.

“I feel more confident that I can consistently swim well in the 200 back than the other two races,” Gleason said. “Also, knowing that it was potentially my last race as a Yale swimmer, my last chance to make All-American, and the fact that a Harvard swimmer was in the lane next to mine made me more focused than earlier in the meet.”

On Friday, Gleason’s time of 1:38.72 was only good enough for 33rd out of 48 competitors in the 200-meter freestyle. Texas’ Scott Goldblatt won the event with a time of 1:35.36, which is a new pool record.

The competition got off to a slow start Thursday in the 200-meter individual medley — in which he was seeded 15th — but finished a disappointing 35th place out of 47 swimmers with a time of 1:48.98. The event was won by Texas swimmer Tom Hanna, who finished with a time of 1:44.76.

Gleason’s first NCAA appearance put an end to his illustrious Yale career in which he set school records in the 200-meter freestyle, 400-meter individual medley, 100-meter backstroke and, most recently, the 200-meter backstroke. He was also part of the 800-meter freestyle relay record-setting team. It is fitting, then, that Gleason — who competed for the Virgin Islands at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games — finished off his career doing what he has done so many times in the past, rewriting the Yale record books.

“Finishing my career with a lifetime best time, a Yale record and All-America honors at NCAAs was an amazing and emotional experience,” Gleason said.

But it wasn’t Gleason’s greatest swimming memory, which came at the 1999 Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet held at Yale.

“I anchored the final relay against Harvard’s top sprinter, swam faster than I thought I could at the time and touched him out,” Gleason said. “Considering the emotion of the meet and the support of my entire team, this was my fondest memory.”